Surrogacy

22-year-old Logan Morton was shocked when he was diagnosed with leukemia in April of last year. Even worse, he found out that he couldn’t leave his sperm to his significant other if he were to die.

While deep in the throes of chemo therapy, an experience that he described in a Stuff.co.nz article, Morton asked a nurse to help him fill out the paperwork to store his sperm through Fertility Associates. It was then that he noticed that only a woman could legally receive his sperm and not his boyfriend Jeremy Young.

New Zealand's Human Assisted Reproductive Technology (HART) Act 2000 says that sperm is to be “available for use only by a specified person within a specified timeframe.”

The organization Fertility Associates took this to mean only a woman could use the sperm because “only a woman can use sperm to make a baby.”

After Morton complained that he wanted his partner to have rights to the sperm should he die, Dr. Mary Birdsall, who’s a chair of Fertiltiy Associates, said the organization is looking into changing its policy.

"We really feel terrible that Logan was offended because we see ourselves as being an organization that works really hard to meet all of our clients' needs, it's just that society is becoming more complicated in terms of reproductive options that are available and we just need to move with the times."

Meanwhile, Morton is pleased to see that his voice was heard.

"Obviously I'm thrilled that it's been brought to their attention and they are willing to update the form and adapt their policy and definitely recognise they are working within legislation like they have to so I guess it boils down to an issue of... the legislation needs updating, doesn't it."

A gay couple has filed a lawsuit this week because one of their twins was denied US citizenship.

After getting married in Canada in 2011, Canadian-American dual citizen Andrew and Israeli-bron Elad decided they wanted to have biological children.

The two men then had twins, Ethan and Aiden Dvash-Banks, through one surrogate mother who used both of their sperm.

More specifically, the two used assisted reproductive technology or ART. Through an anonymous egg donor, a kind surrogate, and both their sperm, they were able to bring their two children into life in 2016.

Unfortunately, when the family decided to move to the US, the immigration system raised a red flag. The rules say that there has to be a DNA match to a US citizen for a child to gain citizenship.

After collecting $900 DNA samples from the children, it was determined that Ethan isn’t biologically related to Andrew. This means, Andrew doesn’t get US citizenship under the law.

As a work around, Andrew was advised to sponsor Ethan as his “step-son” in order to get him a green card or adopt him (despite already being on the child’s birth certificate as a father).

Instead, Andrew and Elad have decided to sue.

Andrew said:

“I just can’t stop thinking about how I’m going to explain to him when he’s older that he is different than his twin brother.

“His twin brother is American but he’s a green card holder.”

“It’s 2017 now. There’s so many different types of families. Look at us. In the LGBT community, there’s so many different types of families and I really feel excluded in a way because of this law,” he said.

I would love the opportunity to have this law changed so the government will recognize him as my son as it should be.”

Now, Andrew and Elad are being represented by an LGBT+ immigrant rights group, have filed the case this past Monday, and are claiming that the State Department is discriminating against them.

Their goal is to get the same citizenship rights for Ethan that his brother Aiden has.

The plan was for the two to try having biological children first before adopting.

“We had this theory that if we were to adopt first, we’d probably never move forward with biological children—out of fear that our adopted son or daughter would feel they weren’t ’enough,'” says Terrell. “But if we did it biologically first, once they were a little older we’d adopt a toddler or elementary-age child that could feel love from us and their siblings.”

As such, they focused on at-home insemination, while using both of their sperm (and swearing to never ask who’s sperm fathered the future children).

The two then went through a miscarriage with their surrogate last year, but they stayed strong and determined to have a child. As such, they buckled down, struggled to find a new surrogate, and eventually found one willing to take the journey with them.

Then, imagine their surprise when the first surrogate announced that she was also pregnant.

That’s right, after they once fought to have a single baby, the couple found themselves having two.

“At this point we didn’t know whether to jump for joy or crap a brick,” Joseph told NewNowNext. “We were expecting results from the new surrogate in just a few days.”

Thus, the two were graced with the (premature) birth of their son, Ashton, on July 27, 2017. After that, they were also blessed with the birth of their daughter, Aria, on September 9.

But that's not the end of thier story. Just the beginning.

After having their children, the two got married in January and formally introduced the "twins" to family and friends.

Now, every day is filled with joy and love, and the happy parents want to remind parent-hopefuls to stick in there during the turbulent times before birth.

“Don’t give up, and don’t let anyone stand in your way,” Terrell advised NewNowNext, “There could be some heartbreak and some ’No’ before you finally get your ’Yes.’ But in the end, you won’t even remember the struggle it took to get them here—you’ll only know the fuzzy feeling you get every time you look at them knowing you’re their world.”